Warmer than usual temperatures in February and March, more typical of April, forced resorts to do their best to stay open. But less-than-ideal conditions kept destination visitors away, except those who were unable to cancel their reservations.
“Looking at those March numbers, occupancy was down about 25% and rates are still holding strong,” Wesselhoff said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour" April 27. “March was down. We expected that. There are no surprises there. We also expect April to be down about the same amount. We're seeing that in the data as well, down about 20%. When you look at the last six months, you look at the season as a whole with the data that we have now, occupancy for the last six months was down about 10%.”
There is some brighter news. With fewer people skiing, visitors appeared to have spent more time shopping, dining and exploring town, boosting sales tax revenues. She says local sales taxes were up 10% in February.
“I think the surprise there was the local spending that was happening during that time, with the local sales taxes being up so significantly," she said. "And when you look at that November through February, the majority of our winter season overall, local sales taxes were up 5%. What that tells me is that maybe when an overnight visitor came in, they would normally ski four or five days of their visit. Maybe they ski two or three, and then they were shopping and spending and eating and enjoying our town and all the great things we have to offer.”
Year to date, restaurant tax revenue is down nearly 1%. The transient room tax collections, which fund the chamber’s budget, are down 3% and the recreation, arts and parks tax revenues are up 2%.
The Park City Chamber is a financial supporter of KPCW.
